Posts Tagged ‘Fair Work Act 2009’

In a recent post about the Fair Work Act 2009, Even It Up! talked briefly about social media and the legalities around whether employers can use what they find online to aid the hiring decision. Simply put: they can’t. It is illegal to do so. But as with many things in this world, it’s only illegal if you get caught! Savvy employers will find other legal ways to refuse to offer a job to someone, for example:

you are overqualified

you are underqualified

you don’t have enough experience

you don’t have the right sort of experience for the role

you may not be a good cultural fit

they have decided to put all hiring on hold

the position has been given to a redeployee

an internal applicant won the role.

etc. etc. There is nothing in what has been said above to indicate that a prospective employer went onto your Facebook/Twitter/MySpace page and did not like what they saw. And whether josbeekers like it or not, employers can and probably will. It’s naive to think otherwise. So, in the interest of protecting your personal brand (particularly aimed at Generation Y* jobseekers) here are some tips to help you:

1. Be careful what you write in your status updates.

We live in an era where we can talk about what we are doing and what we are thinking 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week. But that doesn’t mean that we should. Diane Lee is on Facebook and was recently appalled at a homophobic, pornographic, and really unsavoury status update that was written by a Gen Y ex-student, and promptly removed the update (and all future updates from this person) from the Newsfeed (she is also considering de-Friending the person involved). The question then becomes: would you employ (or recommend) this person knowing this is how/what they think?

One could argue that while our privacy needs to be protected (and should be), social media offers a transparency that allows employers to really see what a person is like. It transcends interviews and reference checks. And, from an employer’s perspective wouldn’t it be better to have evidence that someone thought (given thought is widely understood to be an indicator/predictor of behaviour) in discriminatory ways? Could it be argued that social media is an extension of the vicarious liability laws? Isn’t being aware of a person’s potential to be behave inappropriately heading off a lawsuit? Isn’t it better to manage the brand of the organisation before the hire is made? Not easy questions to answer…

2. Be careful what photos you upload

Ditto above, but the catch here is that other people can also upload photos of you. You need to ensure that if you are tagged (in Facebook, for example) and you don’t like the photo, you remove the tag immediately. And you can set your privacy settings so that you can’t be tagged by other people. If you are uploading photos a) be careful what you upload b) to where and c) who can view them. Also, if you are the one uploading photos of other people, have some consideration for how they will be perceived.

3. Tweak your privacy settings

Most social media sites allow you to tweak your privacy settings. If you are concerned about who is viewing your profile, make sure you adjust your settings to private (or similar). But as demonstrated in the first tip, you still need to ensure that you are thinking big picture. If you aren’t sure about a post or update, ask yourself if you would be happy if a) it was splashed across the front page of a major newspaper/TV news show or b) whetheryou would be happy for the CEO of <insert company where dream job is located here> read your post.If the answer to both is negative, err on the side of caution, and just don’t.

4. Google yourself

There are a numberof sites where you can check to see what isyour online presence is (and Thomas Shaw from The Recruitment Directory listed a number of sites in his response to the Fair Work post).One of the easiest ways is to put your name in inverted commas and Google yourself. For example the search for “diane lee” comes up with this.And this is just the Australia search.It’s worthwhile doing just to check what’s out there, and Even It Up! encourages all jobseekers to Google themsleves. If there’s nothing there (or your name, but it’s not you), it’s time to build an online presence; if your online presence is less than rose-smelling, you need to move quickly to clean it up.

Work/life encroachment

The argument is: work is work and home is home, and what people do in their own time does not affect their ability to the do the job. This argument loses strength when we consider how much work impacts (and encroaches on) our personal lives. Hands up who has a work mobile or email where they are encouraged – nay, expected! – to answer/attend to 24/7? Thought so. How many of you bring work home? Thought so there, too. How many of you think about work, even if you are on holidays (and feel guilty because we aren’t working)? Yep. There’s another one! And how many of you missed a special event because of something you “had to do for work”? And yet we still naively think that work and our personal lives can be kept separate. The internet has enabled the demarcation to blur. Social media is just fuzzying up things even more, and the law is trying (and probably failing) to keep up.

The point of this post is to make readers aware. Josbeekers (of all generations!) really should be proactively managing their online presence to ensure that they are squeaky clean. After all, you never know who is looking.

*If you are interested, more info about Generation Y is available here.

There has been quite a bit of dialogue lately from HR professionals, recruiters and journalists regarding the introduction of the Fair Work Act 2009, in particular whether jobseekers are “more protected” by this legislation.

Sadly, and despite the rhetoric, this does not seem to the be wholly the case.

On the upside, it seems that jobseekers are more protected by the Act in terms of their privacy, and in particular information that is collected about them via social networking sites.

Simply put, employers can not make a decision about employing a candidate based on irrelevent information that does not have anything to do with the job. So those “inappropriate photos” of you that were posted on Facebook (and which were accessed by your potential employer) can not be used to make a hiring decision.

The difficulty is proving it. The employer is more likely to say that you didn’t have the necessary qualificaations, experience or organisational fit rather than actually admit to unlawful behaviour. What Even It Up! does recommend is for jobseekers to proactively manage their online presence (and overall personal brand). Make sure you are squeaky clean, so if any checking is done, only what you what found comes to light. Employers (regardless of legislation!) can and will check on sites such as Wink and Spokeo.

Kate Southam discusses this issue, as well as the “toxic reference” in a recent blog post here. If you are unsure as to what was said/recorded, under the Privacy Act 1988, you can petition the employer for the records relating to your selection and have them amended. Even It Up! is doing just that with a couple of local/state government departments.

We will post the results via this blog and YouTube in the form of a desktop documentary.